Following PMO orders to keep stations clean, staffers, including those from the RPF, have been given the additional responsibility of ensuring cleanliness and fining those who litter
Those in charge of ensuring your safety on railway stations now have to bear the additional burden of monitoring cleanliness on station premises.
Thing of the past? Garbage below the foot over bridge at Khar station. File Pic
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Officers from the Railway Protection Force — especially those that monitor the feed from CCTV cameras installed at various stations — have been asked to also be on the lookout for accumulated garbage as well as people littering the premises. Instructions to this effect have gone out to commercial staff and other staffers at the station as well. All this is part of the Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and railway authorities say the PMO has instructed them to ensure stations are clean.
“Construction contractors, stall owners and their staff have been told not to throw garbage on railway platforms. Anyone found littering on the railway premises will be fined R500,” said a senior official from Western Railway. Even ticket checking staff have been asked to make an effort to ensure their stations are clean. All staff members have been asked to inform the commercial department if they find garbage accumulated anywhere so that cleaning staff can be sent.
“We have been given strict instructions from the PMO and we have been following it seriously as cleanliness of railway premises is important for everyone, especially the passengers,” added the official.
Staff at the Central Railway and Western Railway CCTV monitoring rooms — at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Mumbai Central respectively — are, however, unhappy at being given this extra responsibility. “Monitoring the CCTV feeds for crime and suspicious persons is hard enough, and now we have been asked to look out for accumulated garbage and people who litter. We are trying to monitor all this, but it’s going to be difficult,” said one such staffer.
Officialspeak
Sharat Chandrayan, chief PRO, WR, said, “Garbage and cleanliness will now also be monitored in the control room. Station staff have also been instructed to ensure the stations are clean.”